1. Year 7: China Location Human geography Capital city: Beijing
Northern Hemisphere
East Asia
Nearby countries: Russia, Vietnam, India, Nepal, North and South Korea
Nearby seas: East China Sea and South China Sea
Location
Human geography
Capital city: Beijing
Largest city: Shanghai
Population: 1.3 billion people – the largest in the world
Population density = the amount of people living in an area
China is densely populated on its east coast where a lot of cities are.
China is sparsely populated in the west, particularly around the Tibetan Plateau
Rural to urban migration = the movement of people from the countryside to the city
Push factors = bad things that make you want to leave a place (push you away)
Poor housing
No jobs
Natural disaster
Pull factors = good things that make you want to move to a place (pull you in)
Jobs
Education
Healthcare
Housing
This means it has some rich places and people and some poorer places and people.
Urban China is richer
Rural China is poorer
Jobs in China range from farmers who grow food for themselves in the countryside, to factory workers, to bankers in the cities.
China is a NEE (newly emerging economy)
Year 7: China
China has made its money through manufacturing – a lot of TNCs have factories in China.
Transnational corporation (TNC) – a company with operations in more than one country.
Why China?
Cheap labour
Low production costs
Growing consumer market in China
Positives
Employ over 230,000 people
Give tax to Chinese government to help the economy grow
Have better speed and flexibility in production
Negatives
17 workers committed suicide because of working conditions
Workers have to work 6 days a week for little pay
Factories create more pollution for China
Foxconn – a company that makes products for Apple
Physical geography
Yangtze River
Longest river in China (3rd longest in the world)
Stretches for 6,300km from the Himalayas in West China to Shanghai on the east coast
Flows into East China Sea
Famous for 3 Gorges Dam
Gobi Desert
Covers northern China and southern Mongolia.
It is the fifth largest desert in the world.
A cold desert where temperatures range between 25oC in summer and -30oC in winter.
Tibetan Plateau
An elevated area of land in Central and East Asia
Located in between the Himalaya Mountains and the Taklimakan Desert
Known as the ‘roof of the world’
Near the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest
Non-renewable energy = Energy sources that will run out one day, e.g. coal and oil
Renewable energy = Energy sources that will never run out, e.g. wind, solar and hydro-electric power
3 Gorges Dam
Positives
Provide clean energy
Provide hundreds of jobs
Reduce flooding downstream
Negatives
1.2 million people had to leave their homes to make way for it
The Yangtze river has dropped to its lowest ever level
It will block essential nutrients and fish travelling downstream.
Pollution
Causes
Burning coal for electricity
Factories emit greenhouse gases
Traffic – people are getting richer so they have more cars
Sewage – 90% of human waste flows into China’s rivers
Impacts
Global warming and climate change
The particles in the air can cause asthma and other respiratory diseases
Water pollution kills fish and makes the water undrinkable for people
Air pollution can cause acid rain and destroy crops
Total cost of pollution in 2013 estimated to be 10% of China’s GDP.